Eeda

A few years back when I saw Ramleela directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, I felt Kannur had the political landscape to be the backdrop of a Romeo Juliet story. Renowned editor B Ajithkumar in fact has chosen that idea for his first movie as a director. Dipped in convincing level of realism in narrative, Ajithkumar manages to pull off a love story in the backdrop of blood spilling Kannur politics through Eeda with moments that will stay with us.

Anand is this young man from Kannur who works in an insurance firm in Mysore. Aishwarya is studying in Mysore and she is also from Kannur. They both meet on a Harthal day at Kannur and eventually fall in love without realizing that both of them had families who believed in extremely opposite ideologies. Eeda is the story of that couple who got stranded in that mess.

There is a kind of political correctness this film maintains in order to give the focus to the point that everyone is a loser in this revenge saga. B Ajithkumar who has also written the film has created characters that represent the various dimensions of this political game. The left wing and right wing are both facing the same casualties and we get to see that both sides have this illogical courage to be a martyr. The film becomes a bit clumsy in the middle portions where the protagonists are sort of confused. But in the last portions of the film Ajith Kumar shows us the ugly side of the party politics to manufacture martyrs and the movie that started with the visuals of a Harthal ends on the same note.

Shane Nigam gets into the skin of the character easily. In the beginning portions he fumbles a bit with the slang but he picks it up gradually. The emotional state and the innocent romance were portrayed neatly by the young man. Nimisha Sajayan also has got the charm to be that Kannur girl. The bold and vulnerable shades of the character were performed effectively by her. Almost every actor in the cast has managed to get the slang correctly and that has added more authenticity to the film. Manikandan Achari who sort of got type casted to play eccentric villain roles, gets a slightly different and more genuine character. Sujith Shankar, Alencier Ley Lopez, Surabhi Lakshmi, Abu Valayamkulam, Sudhi Koppa etc are the other main actors in the cast and they all looked convincing for their parts.

B Ajithkumar who has mostly associated with realistic films as an editor makes his first film in the same zone. From the title to the dialect, there is that effort to make it look authentic. The content honestly and brutally exposes the reality of the “killing” politics. Around the mid point there is this lack of clarity in the protagonists to take a decision and the slightly melodramatic treatment wasn’t really in sync with the tone of the rest of Eeda. B Ajithkumar adds gentleness and angst to the content through his cuts and the visuals from Pappu were also fine. The soundtracks weren’t entirely that catchy but the theme scores that came in the background were effective.

Eeda in the end manages to deliver what it was aiming for. This Romeo and Juliet had the intention of exposing mindsets that endorses the sort of bloodshed we still see in the political picture of Kannur and with a real enough love story along with it, Eeda is that romantic drama that deserves to be watched.

Rating: 3/5